The Voyage - Edmund Pevensie

14

Once we said farewell to Coriakin, our party made it back to the Dawn Treader and set off for the blue star. While we couldn't see it in the sky when we first set off, we had started in the direction that Coriakin's map had shown us. Everyone was excited and instilled with a new sense of hope now that we knew where we were going, and what we needed to do. For the first day or so, the weather was clear and everything on the ship was happening without a hitch. 

I should've known it wouldn't be that easy.

After just one fair weather day at sea, the sky darkened, and the storm clouds began rolling in. Then, the rain started. It started and hadn't stopped for 2 weeks. 14 days to be exact of battling with the rain and wind and movement of the ship on choppy water.  I was so tired from helping the crew maintain the ship that I had a constant headache, and I swore I was forgetting what it felt like to feel the sun's rays on my face. In fact the only times I wasn't on deck helping the crew was when I was sleeping, or with Caspian and the Pevensies in the captain's quarters mapping out routes or trying to figure out a way to get out of the storm. However between the tossing of the ship and the stress of the situation we were in, I wasn't sleeping much. 

Between pitching water out of the ship from whenever it splashed overboard, to securing ropes and helping maintain the sails, there was always something to do. Once in a while I'd catch a glimpse of Edmund or Lucy somewhere on the ship helping the crew. And while we tried to take shifts to make it easier for everyone, the situation was growing worse every passing day. The only one who I never saw helping in fact, was Eustace. He preferred to hide below deck, always writing in this journal he'd either found on deck or kept with him from when he came to Narnia with his cousins. I could swear that despite the conditions, the boy was slightly amused in the fact that we were now all as miserable as he had been. 

The only one who didn't seem absolutely miserable was Reep. When the mouse wasn't helping with whatever he could, he was at the very front of the ship watching the sea as we sailed up and down the waves that were trying to do everything in their power to tip the Dawn Treader. 

After a massive wave had almost sent the Dawn Treader on its side, Caspian called an emergency meeting in the captain's quarters. Cas was sitting in the chairs at the back looking out at the sea, almost as if he was trying to part the clouds with his mind to see the blue star. Edmund, Lucy and Drinian were standing around in the middle of the main table. I remained by the door, ready to dart back to the deck and assist if needed. 

"So. We're stuck here," Drinian said wasting no time. He placed his marker down east of Coriakin's island, and my heart sank seeing what little distance we'd covered these 2 weeks. "At half rations, with food and water for two more weeks, maximun." I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the wall behind me. Our situation was dire, all of us knew that. But hearing Drinian say it out loud truly hammered it in what a predicament we were in. "This is your last chance to turn back, Your Majesties." 

This was Drinian's newest idea. Because we had 2 weeks of food left, if we turned around now we could make it back to Coriakin's island in time to restock and rest the crew. "There's no guarantee we'll spot the Blue Star anytime soon. Not in this storm. Needle in a haystack, trying to find this Ramandu place." I opened my eyes and saw Caspian and Ed share a look. While we all hated to admit it, Drinian had a point. "We could sail right past it and off the edge of the world."

"Or get eaten by a sea serpent," Edmund deadpanned. All of us turned to stare at him, and Lucy rolled her eyes at her brother. 

"I'm just saying, the men are getting nervous," Drinian said, staring at Ed. "These are strange seas we're sailing, the likes of which I've never seen before. I understood where his fear was coming from. No one had ever recorded sailing this far east, and everyone was already at their wits end with the rain and storms. But Drinian had to know that Caspian and I would never abandon the search just like that. It wasn't just the Blue Star we were looking for. It was the island that was responsible for the green mist that had taken people's family members. Gail and her dad, who were on this ship, were just a few of the people who had been affected by it. If we didn't stop it, it would keep taking more people and who knew. Maybe it would spread to the mainland and then what?